[f. EMBOSS v.1 + -MENT.]
† 1. The action or process of embossing. Obs.
1801. Ann. Reg., 1799, Chron. 399. A method of … ornamenting by … embossment … cloths or stuffs.
2. concr. A figure carved or molded in relief; embossed ornament. Now rare. Also attrib., as in embossment-map, a map of which the surface is molded in elevations and depressions.
1620. Dekker, Dreame, iij. § 1. There you see the golden embosments and curious enchasings.
1731. Capt. Pownall, in Bibl. Topogr. Brit. (1790), III. 166. An urn … of … clay … without any inscription or embossement.
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, 46. Beneath rose an embossment proud,—A rose beneath a thistle bowed.
1881. Nature, XXIV. 149/1. All the necessary data for making an embossment-map.
3. gen. A bulging, protuberance.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, II. vi. 63. With a swelling embossement.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Saillie, The imbossement of an enchaced pretious stone.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Gardens (Arb.), 560. Perfect circles without any … Imbosments.
1817. R. Jameson, Char. Min., 89. These embossments are not formed by the crystallization of that portion of the salt which has been dissolved.
